Dozens of prisoners escape Ecuador jail amid continued military operations
Quito, Ecuador Reuters Forty-three prisoners remain at large after escaping a prison in northern Ecuador, the SNAI prisons agency said on Monday, as security forces continued operations throughout the country. President Daniel Noboa declared a 60-day state of emergency last week, including a nighttime curfew, and designated 22 criminal groups as terrorists. Members of the […]
Essay: How Ecuador went from being Latin America’s model of stability to a nation in crisis
EDUARDO GAMARRA, a professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University, looks – in an article first piblished on The Conversation – at recent events in Ecuador…
Ecuador cracks down on prisons to restore order after hostage crisis
Quito, Ecuador Reuters Ecuador’s police and military on Sunday were aiming to restore order inside the country’s dangerous prisons where dozens of staff were held hostage by inmates amid an uptick in violence in the Andean nation. Prisoners sit huddled, guarded by police and armed forces, during an operation said to be at Turi prison […]
Eleven prison guards held hostage by inmates in Ecuador freed
Quito, Ecuador Reuters Eleven prison staff members who had been held by inmates at the Esmeraldas prison in Ecuador were freed on Saturday, police said. They were among 158 guards and 20 administrative staffers taken hostage since Monday in at least seven prisons amid a sharp increase in violence in the South American country. Eight […]
Migrants in Mexico: Violence forced them to flee. Now faith sustains these migrants on their journey to the US
MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ, of Associated Press, reports from Tijuana…
US-Mexico border: Migrants are being raped as they await entry to US
LAURA GOTTESDIENER, TED HESSON, MICA ROSENBERG AND DAINA BETH SOLOMON, of Reuters, report…
Corpses, body parts strewn across Mexico’s Monterrey in spate of violence
Monterrey, Mexico Reuters Mutilated corpses and severed body parts were found dumped in seven locations across the metropolitan area of the Mexican city of Monterrey on Tuesday in a spate of violence that unnerved residents of Mexico’s industrial capital. Authorities said they are still analysing the dismembered body parts to try to identify how many […]
Mexico sends 1,500 security forces to southern region plagued by gangs
Mexico City, MexicoReuters Mexico’s government sent over 1,500 security officials including National Guard, army and police to the south of the country on Monday in a bid to shore up security in an area under increasing pressure from organised crime. The taskforce was deployed to the Frontera Comalapa region in the border state of Chiapas […]
Suspects in Ecuador assassination are Colombian, police say
Quito, EcuadorReuters One dead suspect and six others arrested in the assassination of Ecuadorean presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio are Colombians, Ecuadorean police said on Thursday, and the government said it was pursuing the “intellectual authors” of the murder. The fatal shooting on Wednesday night, less than two weeks before the election, has sent shockwaves through […]
Ecuador presidential candidate assassinated, suspect dead – authorities
Quito, EcuadorReuters Ecuador presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, a vocal critic of corruption and organised crime, was killed on Wednesday evening during a campaign event in northern Quito, authorities said. Local media reported Villavicencio had been shot, but Ecuador’s police and Interior Ministry did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the details of the […]